I gotta tell you, this whole mess started with a cheap argument at the pub last week. Seriously. My mate, who is a completely unbearable Man U fan, was sitting there sipping his pint, chirping away about how Liverpool wasn’t going to be in the new, massive Club World Cup thing FIFA is rolling out next summer. I immediately told him he was talking rubbish. I mean, they’re Liverpool! They’ve been one of the top clubs in Europe for years. They’re always in something big. I couldn’t just let that lie.
So, I challenged myself right there: figure out the exact truth, right now, publicly. I pulled out my laptop—yes, I carry my laptop to the pub sometimes, don’t judge—and I started mapping out the rules. I didn’t just type “Liverpool CWC” into Google. That’s useless noise. I had to find the source material.
I opened up FIFA’s incredibly dense rulebook PDF. It’s the one they keep hidden seven layers deep in their website’s administrative section. I spent a solid hour just skimming and highlighting the key parts about the new expanded 32-team tournament planned for the USA in 2025. What I quickly figured out was that UEFA, which is the European governing body, gets 12 spots.
The spots are given out like this:
- Four spots go automatically to the winners of the Champions League (UCL) between 2021 and 2024.
- The remaining eight spots are decided purely by the UEFA ranking system (coefficient points) over that same four-year period.
I built a quick checklist in my notes app. I verified the UCL winners for the cycle:
- 2021: Chelsea (Ticked that box).
- 2022: Real Madrid (Ticked).
- 2023: Man City (Ticked).
- 2024: Real Madrid (Ticked, they won again).
Liverpool didn’t win any of those years. That’s the first huge hit to their chances. So, they absolutely had to rely on the ranking points. This is where the practice got complicated, because you have to know how many points each UCL game gives you, plus bonuses, and then figure out the total score for every non-winner club in Europe.
The Real Reason I Had Time to Become an Expert on UEFA Coefficient Points
You might be asking why I was sitting in a noisy pub, dedicating my brain space to European football bureaucracy instead of, you know, being a normal person. Well, funny story. I had just wrapped up a nightmare freelancing gig. I had delivered a massive piece of software development, they loved it, signed off on acceptance, but then the client suddenly decided they needed three more features that weren’t in the original contract. I pushed back hard, told them the price was fixed, and they straight up ghosted me on the final payment for almost a month.
I spent two solid weeks chasing them down, emailing HR, calling the project manager—nothing. It was like they fell off the face of the earth. I finally decided to write the whole thing off—it wasn’t worth the stress anymore. That meant I had this weird, unexpected chunk of totally free, slightly resentful time. Instead of fighting with corporate finance people, I decided to tackle the only problem that felt solvable and fair: European football rankings. Much easier to deal with, honestly.
So, I pulled up the massive data tables. I verified Liverpool’s ranking score. They were high. Really high. They were right up there with the heavy hitters like Bayern Munich and PSG, comfortably sitting in the qualification spots based purely on points.
But this is where I discovered the qualification killer. This is the crucial detail my Man U mate didn’t know, and why Liverpool is out.
What Happened to Liverpool’s Qualification Chances?
Liverpool were absolutely torpedoed by a specific FIFA/UEFA regulation. I read the clause four times just to make sure I wasn’t mixing up the wording. The rule is simple, and brutal for English clubs:
There is a strict cap of only two teams per country that can qualify via the ranking system. This cap is only lifted if more than two teams from that country won the Champions League during the qualifying cycle (2021-2024).
Now, look at the English teams who took the spots:
- Man City: Qualified as 2023 UCL Winner (Spot #1).
- Chelsea: Qualified as 2021 UCL Winner (Spot #2).
Because Chelsea and Man City both won the UCL, they filled the two automatic champion spots from England. But here’s the kicker: Man City also accumulated a colossal number of coefficient points, making them the highest-ranked English team even if they hadn’t won the UCL. Liverpool, despite also having a massive score, were the third-highest ranked English team overall, because the two spots had already been claimed by the champions.
They failed to qualify because their domestic rivals were too successful in past years. If Chelsea hadn’t won in 2021, the rules would be different, and Liverpool would be in because only Man City would have been the automatic English champion. But because two English teams won, the door slammed shut. Liverpool got squeezed out by the two-club cap. I finished my summary, walked back over to the table, and slammed my findings down.
Why Liverpool Is Not In the Club World Cup Right Now
The second part of the question was actually a lot easier, but I still had to confirm the calendar dates for clarity. I checked the dates for the transitional tournaments. The big, expanded, 32-team tournament is in the summer of 2025. We’re not there yet, so they obviously aren’t playing in that “right now.”
The older, smaller version of the Club World Cup, which usually happens in December, generally only features the recent continental champions from that year. Liverpool didn’t win the Champions League or the Europa League in the year prior to the most recent December tournament, so they didn’t qualify for that older format either. Simple as that. The immediate reason is calendar timing; the long-term reason is the painful two-team national quota.
So, there you have it. The two-team country cap killed Liverpool’s qualification dreams for the big 2025 tournament. It wasn’t about not being good enough on the pitch; it was entirely down to the brutal fine print of UEFA bureaucracy and being in the wrong country at the wrong time when past glory counted against them.